France’s turn?

posted at 8:41 am on September 19, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

The US may no longer command the full attention of angry Muslims marching in the streets, thanks to a satirical newspaper in France and its decision to publish cartoons featuring Mohammed. Charlie Hebdo offered its latest issue earlier today, and France has reacted by clamping down on protest and closing some of its embassies, consulates, and schools (via JWF):

France has temporarily closed its embassies and schools in 20 countries after a satirical magazine in Paris published insulting cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, a move it fears will add “fuel to the fire” of global tensions over an anti-Islam film.

It’s not as if the magazine doesn’t know what it’s doing; their offices got firebombed almost a year ago after publishing cartoons ridiculing Islam. CH’s cartoons are fully intended to provoke this time as well. NBC describes the front-page cartoon, which mocks the violence from Muslim radicals by portraying Mohammed as a sick old man in a wheelchair:

The front page cartoon had the figure in a wheelchair saying “You mustn’t mock” under the headline “Untouchable 2”, a reference to a hugely popular French movie about a paralyzed rich white man and his black assistant.

Will France stand up for free speech and the right to criticize groups that engage in violence? So far, the hints aren’t terribly encouraging:

The prime minister said freedom of expression is guaranteed in France, but cautioned that it “should be exercised with responsibility and respect.”

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius defended freedom of expression, but warned thatCharlie Hebdo could be throwing “oil on the fire” and said it’s up to courts to decide whether the magazine went too far.

“Freedom of expression can be limited by court decisions. If there is a case of overstepping, it’s up to individuals or groups to bring it to the courts, which will say whether the law … was respected,” he said after a Cabinet meeting.

Abdallah Zekri, President of the Paris-Based Anti-Islamophobia Observatory, said his group is considering filing a lawsuit but no decision has been made. “People want to create trouble in France,” he told AP. “Charlie Hebdo wants to make money on the backs of Muslims.”

As Allahpundit wrote last night, this basically means that any group that responds violently to speech wins the right to dictate to everyone else what the limit of that speech will be. That isn’t freedom, nor is it free speech; it’s living within the dictates of a violent mob. France has different laws governing freedom of expression than we do, of course, but suggesting that courts will censor people in order to prevent violence by theiropponents is a very large leap toward living under siege.

As violent and sometimes deadly protests consume much of the Muslim world in response to an American-made video mocking the Prophet Muhammad, New Yorkers will soon encounter another potentially inflammatory rendering of Islam: an advertisement in the transit system that reads, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.”

It concludes with the words, “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad,” wedged between two Stars of David.

After rejecting the ads initially, then losing a federal court ruling on First Amendment grounds, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said on Tuesday that the ads were expected to appear next week at 10 subway stations.

“Our hands are tied,” Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the authority, said when asked about the timing of the ad.

In July, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that the authority had violated the First Amendment rights of the group that sought to place the ad, the American Freedom Defense Initiative. The authority had cited the ad’s “demeaning” language in barring its placement.

Inflammatory? Perhaps, but after watching the repeated paroxysms of rage resulting from any critical speech about Islam over the last several years, it’s difficult to dispute the central thesis that at some level this is a conflict between civilization and its opposite. Freedom of speech is intended to solidify civilization, allowing for discourse to replace gunfire as the means to which one’s values prevail. If we allow gunfire to determine the limits of speech as imposed by those who consider us their enemy, then civilization a chimera, an illusion that covers up a totalitarian reality.

That’s easy to forget in the heat of the moment. It’s our duty to remember what’s at stake, however, before it’s lost entirely.

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I’m in France right now, on vacay, it’s peaceful here currently and haven’t heard of any protests anywhere….will go to Bordeaux this weekend though, to visit with my sister…Bordeaux has a relatively big muslim community (15% probably) and an anoying one at it, very traditional too, the guys wear those long thawbs and djellabas as everyday garment, if you get lost in one of their neighborhoods in Bordeaux you would insintictively want to pinch yourself, make sure you are in France and not in the Middle East…beats even London…I wonder if they go crazy on us here too, or only abroad.ME/and North Africa…

Many Muslims in so many places in the world, including the West, seem ready to go on a murderous rampage over just some dumb obscure movie or a little Muhammad cartoon published in some obscure publications. Yet all the smiling Muslim apologists here denounce us infidels for fearing Muslims or for having very negative opinions of Islam calling it “Islamophobia”.

So who you are going to believe, the smiling Muslim apologists or your lying eyes?

I’ve been to the one in Wheeling whenever I got sent up there. We just got a new one in Charleston which is only an hour’s drive for me. Haven’t been to that one yet.

wildcat72 on September 19, 2012 at 9:37 AM

That one in Wheeling has a great collection of taxidermy. Stopped there a couple of times on trips to DC from Hoosiertopia.

I shop Cabelas and use their buyers club. Also shop online and then go to the local in Hammond where they will give the online prices. But I by guns from gun dealers of my acquaintance and who work the gun show circuit. I like to haggle, and support the local guys.

As for the French, what does it say about them that the bravest members of their society are cartoonists?

Many Muslims in so many places in the world, including the West, seem ready to go on a murderous rampage over just some dumb obscure movie or a little Muhammad cartoon published in some obscure publications. Yet all the smiling Muslim apologists here denounce us infidels for fearing Muslims or for having very negative opinions of Islam calling it “Islamophobia”.

So who you are going to believe, the smiling Muslim apologists or your lying eyes?

The funny thing is that when American Muslims want to build a mosque (in NYC, in Tennessee, etc.) the freedom of speech argument suddenly takes a backseat and it’s all about “protecting the sensibility of the 9/11 victims” LOL

1215 on September 19, 2012 at 9:01 AM

Well, remember, the real problem didn’t start when Muslims wanted the Mosque, when the mayor of NY and many other Americans concurred, or when many other people objected and peacefully demonstrated, it took off when violent crowds of intolerant, fascist demonstrators flocked to the proposed site, started burning Korans, called for the imprisonment of mosque supporters, set the proposed site ablaze and murdered the leading proponent before dragging him through the streets. Wait…that last part didn’t happen, did it? Could illustrate the diff between freedom of speech and murderous, fanatic intolerance, eh?

France announced Wednesday it will close 20 embassies across the Muslim world on Friday after French weekly Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed naked, amid growing unrest over an anti-Islamic film that has left dozens dead.

Capitulating wussies. There s/b a global pi*s-on-Mohmmed contest, with bacon at hand.

If all the western countries started printing stories critical of Islam, editorial cartoonists went full-bore crazy mocking Mohammed, and a few more movies (maybe of some quality this time?) came out denigrating Islam, what might happen?

I’m thinking either 1) Islamists heads would explode all over the world, leaving behind the more rational Muslims, or 2) they would end up setting their own countries on fire in the extreme protests that would ensue, leaving them (that are still alive) sitting in the smoldering ashes. Or some combination of the two.

Every time they protest and go crazy on some perceived insult, double down on the insults until they self-immolate.

France announced Wednesday it will close 20 embassies across the Muslim world on Friday after French weekly Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed naked, amid growing unrest over an anti-Islamic film that has left dozens dead.

Capitulating wussies. There s/b a global pi*s-on-Mohmmed contest, with bacon at hand.

Schadenfreude on September 19, 2012 at 1:18 PM

better close them, than let your ambassadors get killed and dragged in the streets by barbarians…